Klarna announces fresh round of lay offs, less than a month after CEO said cuts were done

Klarna, a Swedish fintech offering credit to people shopping online, has announced a fresh round of job cuts just weeks after its CEO had said cost cutting via job losses was over. 

The buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) pioneer revealed plans to cut more staff on Monday, local Swedish outlet SvD first reported. The cuts were announced by chief operating and expansion officer, Camilla Giesecke, in a video broadcast on Monday afternoon — which was later circulated on the company’s intranet. 

Per a statement shared with The Block a company spokesperson said that following appointment of a new COO in the summer it is “natural that a new manager makes changes, which is what is happening now.” The statement also noted the latest “adjustments” were smaller than the changes made in May, which it attributed to “the turbulent environment.”

In May, the firm laid off around 700 staff, about 10% of its workforce at the time. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski recently told Bloomberg the firm was finished with cuts.

The latests cuts are set to affect around 100 employees globally, a spokesperson told The Block. 

Once Europe’s most valuable fintech, Klarna’s valuation plunged 85% from about $45 million in 2021 to $6.7 billion in July when it announced it had raised $800 million in common equity. The firm’s investors include the likes of Sequoia, Silver Lake and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as well as the Emirati state-owned Mubadala Investment Company. 

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